Johann Rudolph Glauber

Johann Rudolph Glauber was born in 1604, and his youth came in the devastating wars of religion in Germany. The years of wandering in the ravaged homeland, misery and disease - and now, finally, fortune smiled on the persistent and inquisitive young man, he became an assistant pharmacist Noyshtadtskogo Eisner. For the year of Glauber he gained experience and knowledge and was able to get a job at one of the pharmacies in Vienna. But the Thirty Years` War (1618-1648) continued and the young pharmacist had to move first in Salzburg, then in Kassel, then - in Paris.

Finally, in 1644 Glauber, who has become a respected scholar and gained fame as one of the most skilled chemists of his time, was invited to take the position of Managing Count pharmacy in Giessen. That`s where his talent turned a research chemist! Here Glauber managed to get out of the iron sulphate is very pure sulfuric acid by heating in a retort crystals FeSO4. 7H2O and distilling the resulting product - the "oil of vitriol", which, as it turned out, could dissolve not only copper, but copper ores. Later, in Amsterdam, Glauber became used to produce sulfuric acid and alum KAl (SO4) 2. 12H2O and "white vitriol" - Zinc sulphate ZnSO4. 7H2O, which behave similarly when heated iron sulphate.

He developed a method of production of nitric acid HNO3 reacting sulfuric acid with nitrate KNO3. Concentrated nitric acid ( "spiritus nitrification") proved to be an extremely corrosive liquid that dissolves vsemetally (and iron - "Mars", and copper - "Venus", and silver - "the moon"), only gold ( "Sun") remained in nitric acid unchanged.

Glauber possessed another important secret - to obtain "spiritus Salis" - hydrochloric acid HCl from salt by the action of sulfuric acid. Heating of this mixture gave a colorless gas with a pungent, suffocating odor (hydrogen chloride), which upon the absorption of water giving hydrochloric acid. And another undoubted achievement Glauber - that heating a mixture of nitric acid and ammonia - ammonium chloride NH4Cl - he received "aqua regia" - a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid, which dissolves even gold.

After moving to a small town near Amsterdam Kittsinger, tireless alchemist-pharmacist continued his studies, and soon learned to get concentrated acetic acid CH3COOH of wine (ethyl) alcohol C2H5OH ...

Johann Rudolph Glauber known not only in research methods in radiation acids. On his account, and the allocation of the famous "Glauber`s salt" - Na2SO4 sodium sulfate. 10H2O, and providing a plurality of previously unknown salts - nitrates and chlorides, release of ammonia NH3, to obtain ammonium sulfate (NH4) 2SO4 ( "sal ammonia sekretum Glauber"), which he used as a fertilizer in his garden.

There is evidence that the great pharmacist first isolated and used for medical purposes S6N5ON phenol (carbolic acid) and a number of vegetable alkaloids, successfully engaged in glassmaking and developed methods for producing stained-glass ...